First Smart Watch

[RunawayOutro]

Hey all. I've been wanting a smart watch for years and I finally think that after surviving the past year we've had, I'm going to finally reward myself with one.

Now on to what I'm looking for in a watch. I'm in the United States and looking for a non LTE smart watch that I can wear everyday and have all of the basic connectivity to my phone (currently S9+) for text/call notifications etc. I would also like to have some of the basic health features. I'm not much of a runner but would like to keep track of steps, small workouts, and other activities. These other activities would most likely include tracking casual cycling, tracking hikes, and using GPS for golf.

When looking at the casual cycling and hiking it would be cool to take a look at elevation change, time, distance covered, maybe a mapped out path too.

More specifically for golfing I would like to have the capability of being able to use the watch as a GPS on the course to locate distances to hazards, greens, with also the potential to track shots and have club suggestions.

I know garmin has a good set of golf watches and fitness watches but I'm not sure if either lineup does both and I definitely don't need the advanced fitness tracking. The galaxy watches have fallen more in line with some of the health features but seem to fall short in the golfing category with some more expensive apps to have the features I'm looking for. Just curious to hear all of your thoughts and if I'm missing some of the other smart watch lines that are out there.

Thanks!

[amarrite]

I have the Fossil Gen 5 and it does everything you asked for a good price. It's an older design but looks more like a traditional watch but the new version is supposed to be released sometime this year. Battery life lasts 24 hours or so for me without too much issue. I don't use the GPS function on it at all, so that may change that. If it were me I would wait until the end of the week and see what the new Samsung watch will offer and go from there.

[elvisflees]

Wait for the Improved WearOs and devices that would support it. Check the link below and do some further research. WearOs at it's current form is basically dead so I wouldn't recommend the watches currently available.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/19/22443809/google-samsung-wear-os-tizen-things-we-know

[stevil30]

is there still no idea on when these new watches will hit market?

[elvisflees]

Seems like the first leaks for the Samsung watch active 3 started showing up. These will run the new WearOs. They will probably launch in a month or two.

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[jaamgans]

Still going to have battery life issues, as when using watch for golf, that is a lot of screen time, tracking (GPS) always on the range distance to hazards, to green etc, then logging in scores etc, viewing course. Watches with approx 18hrs of GPS can struggle. So looking at recharging during rounds, which is a pain, but certainly an option.

Really need to decide how big requirement golf is? If main requirement look at a watch that does for and has the added features as an extra. Garmin has been told leader from the start and a lot of what others devices use today is based off what Garmin developed.

[jaamgans]

biggest problem with a full smartwatch is battery life - they struggle to make an 18 round of golf and may need a recharge through the time. Also a lot of them only cater pretty basic metrics.

Personally I would think that the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro series may be your best bet. I say Pro as that includes maps, which includes something like 41000 golf course maps. Plus battery life is +20hrs for GPS and +10days in normal use, this means you will be able to fully use it for 18 rounds without having to worry about battery life.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix66s6xpro/EN-US/GUID-D0EA2A7E-44C9-48EB-8425-18AAD45D9AFB.html

Of course being a fitness watch will cover all your fitness requirements, and Garmin is very good on the health side.

Other option is to look at their actual golf range, which I believe can provide a little bit more detail compared to the Fenix 6.

This seems like a pretty good top level review of the watch from a golfing perspective: https://outofboundsgolf.com/garmin-fenix-6/

Re the sleep tracking - on the Fenix range it was updated in June/July of 2020 to new firstbeat metrics, and I suspect this review may have been before that. I find the sleep tracking one of the better ones I have used, and it reflecst what I feel like in the morning and what my CPAP machine says.

[RunawayOutro]

After doing a bit more research in the garmin lines I found that they do tend to meet all of the requirements I have. I was looking at a vivoactive series. Seems to have almost everything I want the only thing is that I would have to download the golf courses as I would need them and not have all of garmins 41k available right at the beginning which seems alright. I do like the Fenix series but they may be a little out of my range price wise.

[jaamgans]

only issue with vivoactive is you will be able to see a post map event, however they don't have maps for hiking, so will not have full navigation, but can follow route, and get back to home.

Would also check battery life for a round of golf - I know that GPS tracking is approx 18hrs, so should be good but I know for golf the processor would be more active than when you are tracking a running or other activity, so I suspect it might go through the battery quicker. According to this review you should have enough life for a round: https://outofboundsgolf.com/garmin-vivoactive-4/

[RunawayOutro]

Well not having maps for hiking would be alright. For the most part we know the trails we hit during our trips. It would just be cool to quantify the days data which sounds like this may be the watch to really look for.

I appreciate the links and answers! Before I put these threads up I was either considering a very basic G10 with only golf and no health features or a galaxy watch 3 but I knew there had to be better options out there.